Perth

BTW I found my pano of Busselton.

We spent about 1 week in Perth sightseeing and getting the car and caravan serviced. Perth is a nice city undergoing major harbour renovations.  Their train system poops all over ours in every way.  We spent a day in Freemantle which is a lovely 'oldish' harbour town and visited the original gaol.

And no I wasn't kidding about going to the casino. We went for 2 days and  Paul was happy playing blackjack and the kids were happy on the water slides….. 

…and I was happy because I barely saw the lot of them for 2 days.

North to Perth

Heading north to Perth we stopped off at Valley of the Giants and did the tree top walk.  It was all good until we started to ascend and I realised that the walkway was suspended - it moved, I didn't.  I managed to get through it by looking straight ahead and not letting go of the rails for a second. I was white as a ghost I am sure and my kids laughed at me the whole way. I don't remember ever being scared of heights before this.  Just another added bonus of getting older.

 After we finished our walk amongst the trees, we got up close to some of them on the ground…more my pace 

We stopped at Margaret River for a few days and loved it there but there's really not much to take photos of. It's sort of like Byron Bay - lots of (surf) shops and organic cafes. The beaches were great but it was overcast and we weren't on a winery budget….more like a cask wine budget so we gave them a miss.  Sorry Hollie, I know I let you down!

We did get a cool surf shot of this dude even though we don't know who the hell he is. We'll pretend it's one of Paul's mates.

We carried on after a few days to Busselton which is a really cute town. It boasts the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere. I took a great panoramic shot of the jetty but I couldn't download to my blog so you'll just have to take my word for it.  Paul and a few of his mates went to the local pubs on Anzac Day to play some 2up -  NOT.  Apparently 2up and pokey machines are not allowed in pubs in WA. If you want to gamble you have to go to Packer's Crown Casino…..coincidence???? 

Next stop Perth….

Crown casino

Albany-ish

 So after we left Esperance, we headed towards Albany. We spent the first few nights at Peaceful Bay Caravan Park and then headed backwards a little bit to join our mates at Cosy Corner free camp.  We were warned from travellers heading south to stay put during the school holidays as everything north was fully booked….so we did. 

For any of those who have done a bit of travelling, especially in free camps, you will have no doubt come across some dodgy characters. We had one at this camp and we called him 'the phile'.  He wouldn't talk to men or look any men in the eyes as he walked by but he went out of his way to make conversation with any young girls.  Anytime he would leave his camp, we would take turns moving or hiding his gear - he would become irate and we would all have a chuckle.


So other than infuriating creepy dude, what do you do when your stuck in the same place for 10 days…..fish of course!!

Woohoo - Paul caught 3 wild salmon!!

From Cosy Corner we went sight seeing around the Albany area.

We spent the day at Green's pool.  It is a beautiful spot with clear blue water and the local kids actually do their swimming lessons here during the summer.

We visited the Natural Bridge

                                                                                  ^

and the Gap.  If you look really close at the above photo, you can see tiny dots on top of the left hand cliff under the arrow

- that's Paul and the kids

We also visited the whaling station and were in awe of the display of whale skeletons - this one below is about 55metres.  They can get up to 70metres!!

So now we head north towards Margaret River 

Esperance onward

Our first stop after crossing the Nullarbor was Esperance. 

We spent the day at Cape Le Grand National Park but we could have spent weeks there. You literally need to line up at 8am each morning at the camp site hoping someone would leave.  If not, the ranger sent you packing back 40km to the town of Esperance to try your luck there again the next day - but man it was worth it if you got in!

The rock formations along the Cape Le Grand coast were so unusual and beautiful.  We visited whistling rock at Hellfire Bay and Frenchman's Peak.  The aboriginals have a story about this place where 2 children stole eagle eggs from the nest.  The mother eagle felt they had stolen her future and in return she carried the kids out to sea.  The early morning dew and waves that hit the rocks are the tears of the children's family and ancestors, and the whistling sound heard through the rock formations are their cries as they wait in vain for the children to return. The story is told to teach children to always obey there parents and elders.

On a lighter note, a moment of brotherly-sisterly love….it passes quickly so I get photos when I can

My favourite spot so far because of it's absolute beauty, is in Cape Le Grand NP and it is called Lucky Bay.  Lucky for anyone who witnesses her soft, squeaky, white sand and clear blue waters.  I didn't want to leave.

We saw seals playing in the waves and the locals were very cute and friendly

but all good things must come to an end so onward and upward (north) we go

The (dreaded) Nullarbor

                      Our next adventure was to cross the Nullarbor!!

We were somewhat dreading it as we knew there were miles and miles of straight roads, but we were with good friends and that made all the difference.

The coastline here was stunning!!

On a sad note, a week after this photo was taken, a swedish backpacker fell to her death trying to get a closer photo.  The above sign is there for a reason.

            I think someone needs a haircut, not mentioning any names

We finally crossed the South Australia/West Australian border and the kids had fun holding the iPhone and crossing the border back and forth watching the time on the phone automatically change over. 

 We knew we were in Western Australia the first time we re-fuelled.  Paul wasn't overly surprised or even upset at the $2.09/Lt diesel as we were forewarned but you should have seen his face when he bought his first cappuccino.  He had to make it himself, no problems there - it cost him $7.50, yep that did it!!  We had to re-do our budget ;(

We got through the endless stretches of unchanging kilometres looking for anything that moved or was dead on the side of the road. There is a part of the crossing called the '90 mile straight' and they are not kidding! We got really excited when there was a bend in the road or another car passed us.  Yes it really is that boring!! But we spent each night with friends at some really beautiful free camps.

     Those are our friends Kate and Andy goofing off in front of the fire

So goodbye South Australia, you are truly a beautiful part of the world, and on to Esperance!!

National Parks

Ok so I am going to go quickly through the past 4 weeks to try and get everyone up to date as some people are getting a bit stroppy that I am a wee bit behind (not mentioning any names)

But just as a friendly reminder that  1. most of the time we don't have reception  2.  we are also trying to see the sights  3.  we are also trying to do home schooling  4.  anyone who knows me well, knows i procrastinate…a little bit.

So we are going back to the middle of March, when after we left Adelaide, we continued on to Innes National Park which is at the very tip of the Yorke Peninsula.   We stayed at the beautiful spot of Pandalowie which is near the local fishing village/camp.  It was a magic spot where many fishing tours were based and many a snapper were caught while we were there.  We had a great beach all to ourselves, where we fished and Paul got a glimpse of the lochness monster - who knew it travelled this far?

no one towed their boats by car here, all by tractors

Lochness monster???

After a few days here and a near run-in with an angry male kangaroo, we decided to move on.  We drove through Port Augusta which wasn't too flash and continued on down the Eyre Peninsula to Whyalla.  We learnt how to catch blue swimmer crabs with a rake - or Paul's version where he just steps on them with his size 12 feet, gets bitten and rakes them in….whatever works!  We also met another family travelling around Oz for the year and spend most of the next 6 weeks travelling with them.

raking in the crabs - literally

Our next stop is still one of our favourites so far and it is Fisherman's Point in (port) Lincoln National Park.  Again, we had this whole site and beach to ourselves (the beauty of travelling off season). Here we did more crabbing and also got some razor fish. You basically pull them out of the sand and then eat it raw like a scallop. We were camped out on the cliff top and had the best seat in the house to watch the dolphins, stingrays and other marine life. We only left when after 5 days the wind got up to 55km/hr and I was worried a branch was going to fall on our roof.

oh the serenity….

stingray

did I mention Paul (stepped on) caught some more crabs…

So the winds picked up and we continued on.  

Off to yet another national park - Coffin Bay NP and camped at Yangie Bay.  Notice all the national parks we are staying at -- no reception folks, no blog ;)

Another great place where we could four wheel drive on the beach and drove out to Morgans Landing and 7 mile beach.  We sand surfed the dunes and dodged emus with no one else around….perfect!

poor kids are missing school- can you tell

the dunes were very steep

3 days on and we were on the move again.  The next couple of camp stops were ok but not worth photographing.  We did however stop at a few tourist spots along the way before we spent 4 days at Streaky Bay.

                                     South Australia coast 

farmer's haystacks

Streaky bay - our site on the beach

We had a blast at Streaky Bay.  We caught up with 3 other families and went to the 50th annual Streaky Bay (horse) races.  You haven't been to a horse race until you've been to a country horse race - too much fun with great people!!

We hated to leave but we had to get a move on so Nullarbor and Western Australia here we come!

PS

This is my funny, gorgeous, single friend Kate.  I haven't heard from her in awhile-- I reckon I might now as she is going to kill me.